Waking up in Geelong

It’s a hot summer day and you just want to get home, so you walk into Southern Cross Station to catch a train – only to be greeted by a failing wall of next train displays.

Yep, it’s cooked

Three out of the seven displays are barely visible – leaving the next seven V/Line departures MIA, along with the entire list of V/Line arrivals, and all services on the Cranbourne, Pakenham and Frankston lines.

But luckily you turn around and find a second set of screens – only to discover half these ones are also broken – you can now see the Cranbourne, Pakenham and Frankston lines; and the V/Line arrivals are nice and bright; but the Lilydale, Belgrave and Glen Waverley line are gone.

And the next seven V/Line departures – if you squint hard, you might just be able to read them on the faded screen.

And don’t hope on walking over to the platforms either – the screen at the top of platform 11 and 12 was also hardly visible.

As was the one above platform 15 and 16.

But why?

The reason for the screens not working? The screens aren’t broken outright, as they work most of the time.

The clue being in tiny text in the corner of the screen – ‘TEMPERATURE WARNING!!’. I photographed the failing screens on December 5th, when the top temperature was 33.2 °C, and that was enough for the the screens to be unable to cope.

I found a similar warning on one of the platform screens on February 4th – when the top temperature was 37.5 °C.

So in theory a simple fix – but the management at Southern Cross Station can’t even change a light bulb.

And they aren’t that old

You might point the finger at the screens being old, but that isn’t exactly true – for years Southern Cross Station used a ‘temporary’ array of CRT television screens to display the next suburban train departures.

The permanent LCD screens not being switched on for suburban trains until March 2009.

Allowing the ‘temporary’ screens to be covered up.

Until they were finally removed in April 2010.

And the LCD screens didn’t last long anyway – they were removed in November 2012 for “maintenance”.

Out of service from November 12 to December 23 – that’s 41 days to change eight screens!

Footnote: another other things cooking in the heat

Melbourne’s Comeng suburban trains from the 1980s also once had a reputation for failing in the heat.

The air conditioning failing once the temperature reached 35 degrees.

So after a spate of failures during the summer of 2008-09, the decision was made to upgrade the air conditioning units fitted to said trains.

And lo and behold – they’re just as reliable as newer trains in hot weather.

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